Unfortunately, the extension does little more than storing a list of domains on your computer and hiding the results from those domains. It's not tied to a web service and the blacklist is not saved to your Google account, so that you could use it from a different computer or another browser.
Matt Cutts says that the list of domains you've blocked is sent to Google. "We will study the resulting feedback and explore using it as a potential ranking signal for our search results."
Google SearchWiki used to offer a similar feature, but you could only use it to hide certain results. Blocking domains is more powerful and it will be interesting to see if it will become a regular Google search feature. I think it's too powerful and it might lead to unintended consequences: for example, some users might hide a domain just because a web page is not very helpful.
I've been wanting this feature for a long time, but I'm not really interested in getting it in this form. Guess I'll have to keep waiting.
ReplyDeleteexperts-exchange.com is really annoying
ReplyDeleteonly hiding it instead of real blocking (e.g. press f5 to load the web site and it displays all the results and a second later you can see that some results are hidden.
ReplyDeleteWould have been better to have a real server-side blocklist instead of using the computers of the users :(
No solution!
I think for me one of the biggest issues with this functionality is simply the opportunity cost involved. How many millions of results are there out there? How many am I going to spend the time blocking?
ReplyDeleteI'm struggling to think of many times I've ever said to myself, "Hey, I despise domain x!"
On the other hand, I can definitely see how the collective work of the teeming masses could go a long way. Next thing we know we're going to here about people complaining that Google is getting people to do its dirty work and failing to pay them a cent . . .
Personally, I don't want other people's opinions to decide whether a domain is blocked for me.
DeleteThe only downside is that it's not part of my Google settings - I use so many computers on an average day that constantly blocking the same domains on different PCs would be rather annoying.
*hear* :\
ReplyDeleteI think Google got inspired by the extension "Google Search Filter" by Intelco, where you also can promote good results.
ReplyDeletehttps://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/eidhkmnbiahhgbgpjpiimdogfidfikgf
My configuration list:
# Make these domains stand out in results
+en.wikipedia.org
+stackoverflow.com
+github.com
+api.rubyonrails.org
+apple.com
+ruby-doc.org
+codex.wordpress.org
+imdb.com
+code.google.com
+.edu/
# SPAM - never show these results
experts-exchange.com
ezinearticles
efreedom.com
about.com
ehow.com
thedailyreviewer.com
Useless extension. If implemented on original search, it might lead to in appropriate results.
ReplyDeletegood to know that i am not the only one who thinks experts-exchange.com is so annoying!
ReplyDeleteEzinearticles.com must go away from the 1st page.
ReplyDeleteEven though Google custom search was designed to include domains, it can be used to exclude domains!
ReplyDeleteRead more: How to create a blacklist for Google search results? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_6752589_create-blacklist-google-search-results_.html#ixzz1E0wEBPHZ
Does this effect webmaster efforts of SEO?
ReplyDeleteCompetitors can blacklist our website to gain better results.
Hope you have something to fight against such spammers.
Too funny the example was experts-exchange.com.. I always hated the links from there, and I click on it only to curse myself.. A server-backed blocklist would have been better, but this will do for now - at least for the experts-exchange :)
ReplyDeletewhy do people dislike experts-exchange.com? they always have great answers to problems.
ReplyDeletedo you guys know that if you scroll WAY down to the bottom all the answers are visible without paying any money?
I bet this could also be used to take out competitor sites from search results. Just run automated searches on few thousands of PCs via some botnet, and voila.
ReplyDeleteWow, I was just looking for a way to do this yesterday. There's this Comic Book Movie site that is attrocious in Google News, although it's just a fan site/blog that reposts and editorializes other people's news stories. I can finally get rid of it!!
ReplyDeleteIve heard about this over at other blogs and it looks like its going to be a very popular extension. I know for sure i will be using it
ReplyDeleteuseless. Reinstall Chrome (or delete the extension) and your block list is gone. Local lists are silly... well but it saves Google's CPU ;)
ReplyDeleteYes, adding extensions' settings to the list of items available for chrome sync is absolutely necessary before this extension becomes useful. Does anybody know if Google plans to implement this kind of feature in future releases of Chrome?
ReplyDeletePOssible to block the likes of software.informer.com and softonic.com :)
ReplyDeleteWhy Google is not yet banning their useless results
This is a good idea, however I am not sold on how the general public would use something like this, to much work.
ReplyDeleteI want a search filter saved in Google itself, I don’t want to be displayed news from the stupid Aljazeera network for example, exclude from results will be a nice feature.
ReplyDeleteBlocking your rival through a Google chrome extension. Bit sneaky and might be used very often. Hope Google understands what they're getting themselves in to.
ReplyDeleteHow about an extension for firefox too?
ReplyDeletenot ok feature cause you're blocking the domain but including all subdomains. so, blogspot.com and wordpress.com and all other site with lots og subdomain will suffer specifically subdomains with very good quality.
ReplyDeleteIf it allows me only to block "experts exchange" it has done its' job.
ReplyDeleteNot working for me
ReplyDeleteAll they have to do is allow people to have their own account based 'blacklist' & not use it to affect anyone else's search results - Where's the difficulty? I wouldn't care if it added an extra ½ second to my search time as it would save me much more than that by not giving me loads of experts-exchange links I have to read over.
ReplyDelete